As new hardware devices are designed and developed, there is a need to test the individual components to ensure that they meet the requirement specifications. Present systems use a variety of suppliers for required components. Qualification testing is typically performed by the supplier of the individual components, and repeated or verified by the hardware manufacturer.
The manufacturer/designer/production team of the electronic device will define system requirements for both the entire device and for each individual component. The component requirements are forwarded to the supplier of that component for input into their testing requirements. Once the component has been built by the supplier, a predetermined number of the built components are tested to ensure that they meet the designer's requirements. Typically, the supplier will perform its own set of tests and subjectively determine whether or not the component has passed. These test results are then forwarded, with the components tested, back to the quality assurance team. It is then typically necessary for the quality assurance team to retest the components and compare their results with the supplier's test results. Frequently, the quality assurance team will find a difference in results. These differences are caused most often by virtue of the fact that the two test teams use different setups, different handling of the measurement equipment, or have differently-trained test teams. For instance, suppliers in some localities often have high turnover of staff which requires the new test staff to be properly trained before completing the tests.
When the results obtained by the quality assurance test staff are significantly different than the supplier test staff, the electronic component must then often be retested at the supplier site, after a possible reconfiguration, to conform to the test requirements of the production team. If there are anomalies, or if the electronic component does not meet the standards of the requirement specification, then the design or implementation of the electronic components must be fixed at the supplier site. This resulting retesting of electronic device components, as well as the communications back and forth between the production and quality assurance teams and the supplier, introduce unacceptable delays in the manufacturing process. The “time-to-market” for these devices is typically three to six months from conception through mass manufacture. If many of these delays are introduced, the components will be close to obsolete by the time they are introduced into market. Therefore, there is a need to shorten this cycle of design test and market.